Dear Diary
by Shiranaisan
Summary: Today I became a magical girl!
1. May 31

5/31

Dear Diary,

I am so excited! You will not believe me, but something extraordinary has happened today. I have become a magical girl! I was approached by a creature who said I have a talent for it. At first I could not believe it myself, but when he granted my wish, I knew it must be real. He gave me a Soul Gem, and in return for my wish I must fight evil beings called witches. But I don't mind. He told me they are powered by despair, and they are the reason behind many disappearances and suicides.

That just isn't right. You agree, don't you? If I had known, I would have become a magical girl even without the wish. Killing people is just wrong. And worse, nobody even knows this is happening! It's terrible and I want to stop it if I can.

I think I'll go out for my first patrol. Wish me luck!

-Haley


	2. June 2

6/2

Dear Diary,

Being a magical girl is tough! I've only patrolled a few times, but I haven't seen a single witch yet! The creature that gave me my powers said that there will probably be some soon. I don't like it. I think it's nice that there aren't any witches right now, because that means they aren't killing people. And it's fun to be able to go wherever I want at night with my magic. It's a little weird to have to go around in my costume, but if I go like that I can use my magic to make sure nobody sees me. I wrote 6/2 for today's entry because it's a little after midnight right now. My dad almost caught me coming back from my patrol, but I used my magic to get in so he wouldn't notice me. It's like I'm a spy or a ninja.

Nothing really has happened because there aren't any witches, and I'm really sleepy so I'm just going to go to sleep early. I used to try to stay up as late as I could without getting caught, but now I just want to go to bed! Maybe being a magical girl will make me more responsible!

-Haley


	3. June 3

6/3

Dear Diary,

I fought a witch today.

I'm sorry. You must be so annoyed at me. I spent a whole hour trying to come up with what to write, but I just couldn't.

It's been two more hours since then.

I can't sleep tonight. I want to turn on the lights so badly, but I know my mom and dad will just see the light and tell me to go to sleep and stop wasting electricity. And the light wouldn't make the witches go away anyhow.

I hate witches. I wish they didn't exist at all. But they do and I have to fight them. Cuebay, the one who gave me my powers, says I'll get used to it. I probably will. But I hate it. If I had known what they were like, I would have used my wish to make it so there just weren't any. So that they were all destroyed and I wouldn't have to fight them.

I'm going to try to sleep again. But I don't know if it will work.

-Haley


	4. June 7

6/7

Dear Diary,

You probably noticed that I wasn't writing for a while. I'm sorry.

I thought that if I kept it to myself, maybe it would just go away with time. But I can't keep it in like this anymore. It's just too scary. I haven't slept well since that night, and even though I patrol every night with Kyubey, it just isn't as exciting. I know I'll find another witch someday, and I'm afraid. I barely survived last time. What will happen if I meet one that's even stronger?

I'm going to write about the very first time I met a witch. It was horrible, but maybe if I write about it, I will be able to sleep easier. My parents already think I stay up too late at night and that I'm going to perform badly in school because of it. They have no idea.

It was at a house on a nearby street. Kyubey taught me how to find the entrances into the witch's barrier, so we both went in. It was dark and filled with tiny body parts. There were arms and legs, and they all moved like they were alive, except they couldn't possibly be because they were all just bits and pieces but somehow they still moved and came for me. Kyubey just told me they were the witch's familiars.

That's the thing about witches, I found out. The people who make movies really have no idea what a real witch is like. All of the witches in the movies like The Wizard of Oz look normal at least. They look like they could have been human, or even exactly like a normal human. And they go around with familiars like black cats that talk.

Real witches aren't like that at all. They don't even pretend to be like a human. The one I fought was just a bundle of body parts, like someone took a hundred dolls and put them all together in a big blob, except all of the parts were still moving and had other parts growing out of them. And it moved so fast, I could hardly avoid it before it was nearly on top of me with all its hands, trying to catch my hair and scratch me up. And all the other little parts could attack me, too, and there were just so many of them.

I ran for a long time. It was the worst moment in all my life. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears, like they talk about in the books sometimes. And no matter where I went, I couldn't find my way in the dark, because it was so horribly dark everywhere. And even though I kept running, everything kept following, and I could hear giggling all around me that never stopped. I still hear it now, when it's dark in my room and I'm trying to go to bed.

I finally killed it. I was never happier to kill something so wicked and disgusting. After that, everything went back to normal, and it was like nothing had ever happened. Like I had never walked into a dark dimension filled with horrors right out of something even worse than just a horror movie. There just isn't anything I can compare it to.

I hope Kyubey is right and I get used to this. Right now it just makes me feel sick with fear every time I wake up knowing I might have to fight another one.

I'm going to go to sleep now. I hope it works this time.

-Haley


	5. December 13

12/13

Dear Diary,

As you may have noticed, I am not your original owner. This is due to a set of circumstances that, judging by the amount of blank pages present between your two cheap cardboard covers, were never recorded by your former master. There are likely a number of reasons for this, which I can only guess at.

Firstly, the arrival of other Puella Magi. While this would normally be the type of thing that Haley Albrecht would immediately write about, the fact of the matter is these Puella Magi kept her so busy with talks of friendship and wild rushes at witches that she simply lacked the time and energy to keep you updated. But do not fret, little diary. It was not your fault in the end.

Secondly, the number of witches in the area. At the time of your last entry, the number had been rising for mysterious reasons, to the point that Haley Albrecht could not handle them all. Even with the help of these other Puella Magi, the battles were often close. There were simply too many, and the ones that appeared were too powerful.

Thirdly, Haley Albrecht has been clinically dead since September 8th.

Why do I know all of this? Because I am one of the Puella Magi who came to the territory once surveyed by Haley Albrecht. With her passing, I have become one of the three who now watch over this place.

I use the word "passing", although in truth it is not an especially apt word for the situation. That is to say, Haley Albrecht still exists in spirit. However, as far as the rest of the world is concerned, her corpse was found with no particular cause for death in an alleyway. Naturally, since she was a Puella Magi, the incident behind this death was supernatural in nature. But we can get to that another day.

I suppose for now I shall finish up my entry for the day. You are probably at this point wondering why I bothered writing in you at all. To that, I will give this answer: a diary is a story. It is a biographical account. Like with any story, it has a beginning (_My name is Haley_), a middle (_I am a magical girl_), and an end. However, the end had never been covered due to circumstances beyond the writer's control – and so, I have taken it upon myself to correct this.

But that is not all. Rather than let a perfectly good diary go to waste, I have decided to record my own story. From here on, it will not be the tale of the unfortunate Haley Albrecht. Instead, it will be the story of Maria Duhon, fifteen year old Puella Magi. I am not certain how long I will be able to continue my story; it is very possible this will be my first and last addition to this book. But until my end, I shall continue to write.

This is my story.


	6. December 20

12/20

Dear Diary,

Not much worth reporting has occurred as of late. Instead of boring you with details of our usual patrols, I will tell you a little more about myself. After all, it could not be a proper memoir without exploring the details of my life in order to reach an understanding.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, my name is Maria Duhon. I was born in Wisconsin in the capital city of Madison. However, my family moved soon after, and continued to move for the majority of my life. I was never able to make close friends that would keep in contact, so before long I began to withdraw into my reading instead. I was enchanted with stories from a young age – stories of heroes and villains, of battles between good and evil. I longed for such a story of my own. There was something romantic about the idea of going off into battle for the sake of goodness. Something that attracted me to such stories unerringly.

It did not help that my family was not very fortunate. Death seemed to hound us like a dog scenting a trail. I was born the third of five, and before I left my family, only two of us remained. Suicide, sickness, and accidents all slowly stripped my relatives away from me. The stories where death could be overcome were my favorites. It helped me, in an odd way, to come to terms with the deaths of my family. The afterlifes the characters went through to return to life were never bad, or if they were, the heroes changed it to be better. I could content myself knowing that whichever it was my siblings experienced, they may have existed in even more comfort than I.

And then, the day came when I turned thirteen. It was that very same day when I was approached by a strange white creature who called himself only Kyubey.

I shall continue at a later date. This patrol was unusually exhausting, and I need my rest to keep up my strength.


	7. December 31

12/31

Dear Diary,

Haley Albrecht has been restored to her body. A Kyubey was able to get a hold of her Soul Gem, which had been under the jurisdiction of one of my comrades, fellow Puella Magi Anne Muscari. But this is fine. It is even expected. It is Kyubey's job to make sure we do as we are supposed to, and that can hardly be done when one is trapped in their own Soul Gem.

We explained the situation to her. She was upset, naturally – it is difficult to be separated from your family, particularly when they believe you are dead. But this is for the best. There is a good chance she may be hurt badly, so it is better if she has no bonds to tie her back. Because of this, she can move freely and live as necessary to be able to handle any witches she encounters.

So you see, stealing her Soul Gem was simply the best option.

She is still wary of us for obvious reasons. We have offered to let her join us; she isn't especially powerful in her own right, and can get overemotional in a fight. Anne and I are levelheaded enough to prevent anything too horrible from getting at her. But in the end, it will be up to her. We did what we could to help her, and whether or not we continue to help depends on if she asks for it.

And if not…

Well. She will be a rival for Grief Seeds.


End file.
